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Media Plagiarism Done Across Mediums

The title is pretty clear and might split the readers in two groups: one saying yes and the other one saying no in title’s response. Then there are people who could get very furious on the issue probably because they have faced an instance in the past where there content might have been copied by someone. Ask yourself the same question in a different way: would you allow someone else to take the credit of what you have done with so much hard work and efforts? Moreover, how would you feel when you see the person who took the credit for your work getting admirations from all around?

Media plagiarism done across mediums or within the same medium, it is definitely odious and an unethical action. If you like music, you definitely have a favorite band and many favorite songs from that particular band or artist. Would you just go on stage, copy a melody and lyrics from your favorite band and proclaim it as yours? Do you think it’s fair? If your favorite artist is a favorite one, you will definitely get caught in the act but if it’s not very famous, you will get away with it and take the credit for such wonderful lyrics and melody.

The admirations and praises will definitely sound good but you have breached through legal boundaries here. You have infringed the copyrighted material of the band and at the same time, you have shown your disloyalty and insincerity to your favorite artist in the most wicked and evil way possible. While this is just one form of copyright infringement, internet has opened new doors for people who love to plagiarize. They copy the content from one blog, website, article, review or any online written material and display it on their websites as their own content.

While there are various types of software and applications in use by search engines that catch such plagiarism, the cross media plagiarism is still not manageable through machines and software. Cross media plagiarism takes place when content is picked from one medium and disseminated through another medium as original content by the person who’s copying the material. For example, what you might have written on your blog about extinction of certain animal species on earth could get copied by a media reporter in a news program. Your online software is definitely not built to catch this form of plagiarism – not until now at least.

Just in 2012 there were a few cases of plagiarism on TV: CNN had to suspend one of their renowned journalists named Fareed Zakaria for copying content from another from an essay from Jill Lepore. While Mr. Zakaria confessed his act of plagiarism but it didn’t incite any mercy in the minds of his employers. Despite the fact that plagiarism is an utterly unacceptable act and once caught, it gets the perpetrator in trouble, people still fight for its legality and consider it benign. For people who do all the hard work and research to put together small pieces of information to come up with original content for their readers and those who believe in giving credit to the originals, plagiarism is unacceptable: within one or across several mediums.